Best company for outsourcing customer service?

I am running a startup, and I find myself spending at least an hour every day answering customer service emails. I know it's not the best use of my time, and it's time to delegate it. What are some of the best outsourcing companies for startups? (read: affordable)

If you are at the stage where this takes about an hour a day I agree that you still want to learn from the customer service requests and have the flexibility to step in when you deem necessary or when the person handling the hour's worth is calling out a outlier request to you. Because you are in this stage I think you are better off with a dedicated person handling these requests rather than an anonymous service that will have various people respond to the requests and where you will not get the same learnings.

While I agree with some others here that gathering user feedback is hugely important for any startup, I wouldn't discount outsourcing as a viable option altogether. The key is to find a customer support vendor that you collaborate with rather than simply outsource to. You'll want to make sure your vendor provides complete transparency about the work that's being carried out and that they report all user feedback back to you.

I work with 5CA. We work with multiple startups with whom we foster close working relationships, provide daily reports to, and are constantly implementing support improvements for. We're used to working with smaller volumes and can do so flexibly, which means we can provide high-quality support and a personal working relationship while remaining affordable.

You can find us here if you'd like to start a conversation about how we can help out. Good luck!

I know As a Start Up use all their resources in developing core competencies in order to grow, Therefore it is important to use the resources instead of wasting time and manpower on doing jobs which can easily be outsourced, Like most of the Startups prefers the Call Center services for Customer support Services.

We are into same business what you are looking for, we as the best call center has been helping the companies to deliver the best customer service. Being it's our core competency, we made "Our Quality" like this, it is more than just a promise/assurance of making our clients reach the heights of success by rendering the best of customer service at all times.

I run a nearstaffing company and one of our biggest functions we do for clients is customer service. We provide a full time dedicated rep(s) that only works for you which is obviously more than you need right now. When you outsource on such a small scale,only an hour a day, it doesn't seem that affordable if broken down by the hourly wage. That being said if you keep growing and need more support we become very affordable. Check us out http://RepsDirect.com or if you have any questions please feel free to reach out and ask.

That's a regular customer support function. I was ready to write yo ua long message how to select provider properly.. but the volume you need is so low, that maybe you don't need a company at all. Just virtual asistant or something? How technical should be the person answering?

Frankly speaking, you know better your situation but if I was given a choice, I would not outsourced the customer service work . Because, for any startup or for that matter, for any company. Eventhough, it might be time consuming but believe me connecting directly with the customers would give a real knowledge about the product and services you are in and a room to improve. Afterall, no matter we believe, it is for the customers and their needs.

Paul, I agree with the previous comments - if you spend not so much time for it, maybe it's not worth outsourcing it at this point. Consider how much time you'd spend to actually delegate this function (to find an appropriate person/company, train them and then check their work). Also consider possible damage to your customer relationships in case of unprofessional outsourced support. At this stage of your business such damage may be irreparable.

Yet, when your needs grow, I'll be happy to consult you on setting up an outsourced support team. Especially if you need it 24/7, you should consider going offshore (e.g. Eastern Europe), so that the time zone differences allow for uninterrupted 24/7 operations of the American and offshore teams.

Hi Paul,
I can sense from your message that you consider responding to customer mails is a redundant and low value job and therefore you are planning to outsource it.
I do not know much about your business model and/ or the product. However, at a generic level for a startup firm this may be one of the most critical elements of our business value chain. This job is not only about responding to ‘redundant sounding mails’ but could deliver tremendous value of insight into customer requests/ demands/ complaints/ preferences etc. I shall therefore request you to consider keeping this with yourself and find some other elements in your daily routine that is lesser value.
Regards,
Naveen Coomar
Cell: +91.9810.232.822
LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/naveencoomar

Paul, did you just mention outsourcing? delegate? and affordable? Guess what, we can help you here. We help startups with lot more than just customer service and back office which would save you tons of money and have much better control. We also offer private label services, just in case you don't want your clients to know of our collaboration and keep your brand image in tact.

Check us out at analytix.com. I've also sent you a message on LinkedIn. Talk soon.